Round 1 Updates: Red Hat’s Chiras, Schneider Electric’s Lord Clinging To Slim Leads

The closest matchups of Round 1 are shaping up in the Innovation and Evolution regions of CRN’s 2025 Channel Madness tournament.

Let’s see who’s got the luck of the Irish on their side this St. Patrick’s Day as voting in Round 1 continues in the 2025 Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs, where several close contests are shaping up.

After a busy weekend of voting, Red Hat’s Stefanie Chiras is clinging to a slim lead in the Innovation region with 51 percent of the vote against Arctic Wolf’s Bob Skelley, who is at 49 percent.

Elsewhere in the Innovation region, tournament newcomer Tara Fine of Broadcom is working hard to best Gordon Mackintosh of Juniper Networks. Fine’s game plan has put her ahead for now with 53 percent of the vote to Mackintosh’s 47 percent.

Meanwhile in the Evolution region, Schneider Electric’s Gordon Lord is barely holding off WatchGuard’s Michelle Welch. Lord is ahead with 51 percent of the vote to Welch’s 49 percent.

In the Transformation region, SentinelOne’s Brian Lanigan was trailing Friday afternoon but has since taken the lead with 56 percent of the vote in his matchup with NetApp’s Jenni Flinders, who’s at 44 percent.

In the Acceleration region, Kaseya’s Dan Tomaszewski has found a way to retake the lead after trailing Friday in his matchup against former Channel Madness Champion Ken McCray, with Tomaszewski now sitting at 58 percent to McCray’s 42 percent.

Here’s a look at the full results so far:

Transformation

Michael DePalma, OpenText, 61 percent vs. David Weeks, N-able, 39 percent

Kate Woolley, IBM, 69 percent vs. Michael Khoury, Palo Alto Networks, 31 percent

Kevin Rooney, Veeam Software, 70 percent vs. Tom Henderson, Wiz, 30 percent

Jenni Flinders, NetApp, 44 percent vs. Brian Lanigan, SentinelOne, 56 percent

Acceleration

Kobi Elbaz, HP Inc., 24 percent vs. Dave Guzzi, Intel, 76 percent

Lori Cornmesser, 1Password, 75 percent vs. Tyler Prince, Snowflake, 25 percent

Ken McCray, Fortinet, 42 percent vs. Dan Tomaszewski, Kaseya, 58 percent

Steve Loeb, Eaton, 37 percent vs. Lisa Citron, F5, 63 percent

Innovation

Gordon Mackintosh, Juniper Networks, 47 percent vs. Tara Fine, Broadcom, 53 percent

Christian Goffi, Nutanix, 53 percent vs. Craig Weinstein, Nvidia, 47 percent

Scott Barlow, Sophos, 79 percent vs. Rodney Clark, Cisco Systems, 21 percent

Bob Skelley, Arctic Wolf, 49 percent vs. Stefanie Chiras, Red Hat, 51 percent

Evolution

Tom Evans, Cloudflare, 79 percent vs. Ralph Haupter, Microsoft, 21 percent

Michelle Welch, WatchGuard, 49 percent vs. Gordon Lord, Schneider Electric, 51 percent

Rob Cato, Lenovo, 64 percent vs. Denise Millard, Dell Technologies, 36 percent

Michael Rogers, CrowdStrike, 37 percent vs. Erica Volini, ServiceNow, 63 percent

Voting in Round 1 remains open until noon ET on Wednesday, March 19, so there’s still time to head to CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!